More than 200 pieces of ancient porcelain from the Jiujiang Municipal Museum, Jiujiang Folk Customs Museum and Dejiang County Museum in Jiangxi Province are on display at the Shenzhen Museum through Sept. 16.

The exhibit includes green porcelain from the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century BC) and Six Dynasties (222-589), tri-color glazed porcelain and dwarf burial figures from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), green and white porcelain from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), official porcelain from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and glazed Buddhist statues from the Republic of China (1911-1949).

"Items on display are classified as national first-class cultural antiquities and cover a history of more than 3,000 years," Wu Yongcun, curator of the Jiujiang Municipal Museum, said at the exhibition opening July 19.

A noted city in ancient China, Jiujiang functioned as a major trading center along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River for centuries.

Among the exhibits, the oldest is a green jar with cloud and thunder patterns from the Shang Dynasty, unearthed in Jiujiang in 1975. The find indicates that human beings began to live in the area more than 3,000 years ago.

Another highlight of the exhibit is a green pot with the clear Chinese characters "Donglin Temple begging for rice" from the Six Dynasties. It was also unearthed in Jiujiang in 1975.

Established in Jiujiang in 384, the Donglin Temple was the birthplace of the "Pure Earth" sect of Buddhism. The pot was used by the temple’s monks to beg for food.

Jiujiang is the only place in Jiangxi Province where the tri-color glazed porcelain from the Tang Dynasty has been found since 1949.

A tri-color glazed jar and a number of dwarf burial figures from the Tang Dynasty, unearthed in 1979, are highlights of the exhibition.

The vivid dwarf figures were modeled on the images of dwarfs in the ancient city of Daozhou in Hunan Province and were made around the middle of the Tang Dynasty.

Located in the northeast of Jiangxi Province, Jingdezhen has been known internationally for blue and white porcelain, a variety first produced in the Song Dynasty.

The show includes a large variety of blue and white porcelain such as jars, plates, bowls, cups, pillows and cosmetic boxes, which have been unearthed in the Jingdezhen kilns since the 1980s.

The rarest of these items are a set of blue and white glazed cosmetic boxes decorated with female servant figurines and lotuses and a set of blue and white glazed seal boxes with six seals.

Experts are still trying to decode the mystical characters on the six seals. The seal box is the only one of its kind ever found.

The only drawback in the beautifully exhibited display is the lack of information for non-Mandarin-reading visitors. 

(Shenzhen Daily August 9, 2006)